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Walmart (WMT) Announces Additional Hiring to Serve Holiday Rush

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With the much-awaited season of the year approaching, retailers are gearing up to make the most of it. Undertaking additional hiring is one of the most common moves undertaken by retailers ahead of the crucial holiday season. Staying on the same page, Walmart Inc. (WMT - Free Report) has unveiled plans to employ about 150,000 workers for its U.S. stores, with most of them being full-time and permanent positions.

An increased team strength will help Walmart serve better amid the holiday rush. This, in turn, will provide customers a seamless shopping experience — whether it is in-store, online or curbside pick-up. In fact, earlier this month, the omnichannel retailer announced its plans to employ 20,000 new workers at more than 250 Walmart and Sam’s Club distribution centers, fulfillment centers and transportation offices. These job roles will be permanent, including order fillers, lift drivers, freight handlers, technicians and management positions.

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Holiday Season — A Significant Opportunity

Retailers remain focused on making every possible effort to make the most of this busy selling season. To this end, they undertake online and offline growth strategies. Apart from additional hiring, early store openings; replenished assortments; attractive bargains (both in stores and online), along with upgraded apps, are some of the actions many retailers take to make the most of the crucial holiday opportunity. Talking of hiring, the requirement for extra employee strength becomes important in order to manage high consumer traffic across the digital and brick-and-mortar platforms as well as to ensure smooth flow of merchandise and delivery services.

Other than Walmart, many other retailers have unveiled plans to boost worker strength as they prep up for this significant selling period. Last week, Macy's, Inc. (M - Free Report) unveiled plans to hire 76,000 full- and part-time job employees, offering competitive packages and bonuses. It is offering both temporary and permanent openings. Earlier this month, Kohl's Corporation (KSS - Free Report) revealed its intentions to recruit nearly 90,000 seasonal workers, in order to cater to the high demand during this busy shopping period. The company said that it was hiring workers for several roles at its stores, distribution centers as well as the e-commerce fulfilment centers. The closeout retailer, Ollie’s Bargain (OLLI - Free Report) , has also announced plans the recruitment of more than 3,000 associates ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Wrapping Up

Coming back to Walmart, the company as part of its latest hiring, stated that it has a lot to offer to it’s the existing and new workers. These include competitive pay; a seamless hiring process; training for growth and a number of perks such as discounts on food and general merchandise to name a few. In fact, the big-box retailer has always been keen on protecting its workers’ well-being and safety. To this end, the company has made three wage hikes in the past year, alongside providing more full-time jobs, and sponsoring workers’ college tuition and books.

Certainly, Walmart’s focus on ensuring a great experience to customers as well as workers through moves like holiday hiring bodes well.  Shares of the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have rallied 4.2% in the past six months, in line with the industry’s performance. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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